Young Years
by Superpicklechops
Summary: AU where the characters meet in High School. 15 year old Richard Rogers has just been kicked out of another school, this time for leading a cow onto the roof. As he starts his new school he meets friends and enemies alike, and one particular girl that he just cannot seem to leave alone...
1. Period 1: First Meetings

Richard Castle walked up to the school gates with considerably less swagger than usual. The thing was, he'd never seen these school gates before, aside from that time Faircroft High School was featured on the news after a murder. He swallowed apprehensively. There was a throng of students striding past him, mostly in groups chatting and laughing. He stumbled forward after someone hit into his right shoulder, corrected himself and stood looking up at the tall red and white brick building. Richard hated new schools. Unfortunately, aged Fifteen, he had a habit of making sure he was sent to new schools regularly, usually because of being a persistent jackass but most recently for taking a cow up twelve flights of stairs and leaving it on the roof.

Rick hated all things about school. He hated teachers thinking they were smarter than him, he hated other kids for making fun of him but most of all he hated the girls in high school. The girls were always the worst. Mainly because they broke his heart, or ignored him completely in the first place. He remembered a time he wrote a love poem for a girl who, after breaking up with him, posted the poem all over school for everyone to laugh at. Rick shuddered at the memory and walked into the building. Maybe this school would be different, it had a swanky uniform for a start, although he had already decided he severely disliked the burgundy woollen vest.

"Richard Rogers?" A man walked up to him through the crowd of students. He was older looking, grey hair and a smart suit but not much taller than Rick. He wore a navy spotted bow tie and his eyes were deep and tired. Rick rolled his eyes at the use of his previous surname. He'd changed it unofficially to Castle after starting an online story blog- Castle sounded cooler. Nevertheless, he nodded in acceptance of his legal name and shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Yeah."

The man sighed.

"Principal Duncan. Follow me" the man said in the least enthusiastic voice Rick had ever heard. Richard sighed in response and followed the Principal through the shady halls to his office. The large oak door thumped as it shut behind the two of them and the Principal took a seat behind his desk. Rick went to sit in the chair opposite but a booming noise made him jump up in fright.

"Did I give you permission to sit down?!" The principal had an unusually loud voice for someone so small. Rick coughed nervously.

"No." Rick muttered with as much attitude as he dared. The Principal raised his eyebrows.

"I believe you mean 'No _Sir'"._

Rick tutted and muttered a moody "Sir" and put his hands back in his pockets. The Principal slid some paper across his ancient desk and eyeballed Rick.

"Mr Rogers you have been kicked out of five schools in five years and unfortunately you have ended up here." The Principal sighed again.

"We will be watching you, and at the slightest sign of trouble you will be directed straight to this office and I will take great pleasure in inventing new and exciting ways to punish you. Do I make myself clear Mr Rogers?"

The Principal stared hard into Rick's eyes. The boy nodded and swallowed. The Principal smiled like a shark.

"Good. Now, here is your timetable. Get out of my office."

Rick took the paper and left hurriedly, deciding he would try his very best to avoid spending unnecessary time with Principal Duncan and his deceivingly loud voice. That was easier said than done though as trouble seemed to find Richard Castle even if he was trying to avoid it.

As he walked down the corridor towards room B4 in the west block (wherever the hell that was in this maze of a school) he was stopped by a commotion in the hall. _Trouble always found him._ A group of three boys blocked the corridor, surrounding one smaller boy. The smaller boy had light brown hair, slicked to the side with gel. His uniform was immaculate, save his backpack which was currently having its contents tipped out by the group. They were laughing and stamping on the books, pushing him between them, completely ignoring the smaller boy's attempts to retrieve his stuff. Before he even realised it himself, Rick was down the corridor and pushing one of the boys out of the group and into the wall.

"Hey!" The boy shouted, arms up in protest of Rick's manhandling. He ignored the boy and turned to the group, pulling off another kid and throwing him to the side, face set in stone. He stepped forward and crouched down to help the boy pick up his stuff, as the three other boys stood dumbfounded.

"You ok?" Rick asked the boy, who nodded. He didn't look frightened, more like annoyed.

"Hey new boy, who do you think you are?!" Rick looked up to find the source of the voice. He found it to be the supposed leader of the group. The kid eyed him with anger and curiosity. His short black hair shone under the hall light and his uniform was shabby. Rick stood up slowly to meet the boy's eye line. He smiled a half smirk.

"I'm Rick. And you?" Richard smiled politely though his eyes flickered in hesitation.

The boy's eyes glinted as he chuckled in brief amusement but his body portrayed anger.

"Tyson. Jerry Tyson."

Rick sniggered and tilted his head. The group eyed him with a hint of malice. Rick stood up slightly straighter.

"What like Bond, James Bond?"

Tyson smirked and tilted his head to match Rick's.

"This is Ethan Slaughter, Josh Davidson…" He pointed to two larger looking boys then took a step closer to Rick, his breath smelt minty and Rick could see hate his dark brown eyes.

"Choose your enemies carefully Rick."

Tyson stepped past Richard, shoving his shoulder as he passed. Slaughter and Davidson followed, also bumping Rick's shoulder for good measure. Rick swallowed, trouble on his first day- _great._ He crouched to the smaller boy who was busy gathering his bag. The kid looked up and smiled.

"Hey, thanks bro." The boy extended his hand and they shook, standing up as they did.

"Kevin Ryan. You're Rick Castle?" He questioned. Richard nodded. The kid paused for a second and looked confused.

"Like, _the_ Richard Castle that writes the Derrick Storm online novels?"

Rick nodded and smiled warmly at the mention of his work. Kevin grinned and shook Rick's hand harder.

"No way, I love those stories man!"

"Thanks."

Kevin let go of Rick's hand and they began to walk down the corridor.

"Hey, I'm sorry you had to get involved with Tyson. He's… uh… not very nice." Kevin looked at Rick, worried.

"He's just a bully, don't worry 'bout me." Rick responded, smiling. Kevin still looked concerned.

"Yeah but you shouldn't have had to get involved."

"No-one else was gonna."

Kevin shrugged in agreement and responded.

"It could make a good story?"

"What, new kid saves ugeeky kid and together they kick ass?"

Kevin turned to Rick with false exasperation.

"Hey I ain't that geeky!"

"Dude you read my geeky online crime novels…"

Kevin chuckled and continued to walk.

"Fair point."

Rick jogged to catch up.

"Hey Ryan…"

"It's Kevin…"

"Ryan… Kevin? Whatever, look do you know where room B4 is? I got first class there now."

Kevin smiled.

"No joke? Me too! I'll take you there Castle."

"It's Rick…"

Kevin smirked and mimicked Rick's voice. "Castle… Rick? Whatever…"

Rick grinned and followed Kevin down the corridor, chatting about his novels with his unusual friend, on his unusual first morning of his unusual first day.


	2. Period 2: Gym

_Author's Note: Hello everyone! Thanks for reading my ramblings of a story… just so you know I'm British so I'd like to apologise now for any mistakes regarding the US school system or any errors with the speech, syntax or any colloquial errors. I'll be trying to upload chapters frequently however I also have to write a dissertation… Enjoy!_

After first period Rick had Gym at the other end of the school, unfortunately he was not in the same class as Ryan and had to navigate the journey alone. Luckily he saw some kids already in their gym clothes and followed them, else he thought he never would have found the right room. After changing in the disgustingly smelly locker room, Rick joined his classmates in the hall, feeling self-conscious in his gym wear. He'd never liked sport and was dreading whatever was to come. The only consolation, he thought, was that the classes were mixed gender and he might get to see some hot girls.

Rick's thought process was interrupted by the arrival of the gym teacher. She was reasonably short but had a face so stiff and scary Rick assumed that it must be made of iron. The class fell silent on her arrival and Rick could feel the fear in the room; it was evident that no-one crossed this woman.

"Today we will be learning self-defence. Line up, boys by that wall, girls opposite." Her voice was grating and loud, it held a sense of authority that not even the president would argue with. Rick stood by the wall as instructed and found himself next to a tough looking Hispanic boy. He leant across to whisper.

"Hey, what's her name?" Rick pointed at the teacher who was giving instructions to the group. The boy turned and looked at him incredulously.

"You have a death wish?" The boy whispered almost silently and without moving his mouth. He'd obviously had practice.

"No I just…" Rick was cut off by a face that suddenly appeared in front of him. He jumped and practically stood to attention. The teacher glared at him and he feared he may be turned to stone. Rick swallowed nervously as the teacher spoke.

"Mr Rogers I assume?"

He nodded apprehensively.

"I have heard all about you. I'm Mrs Gates, you can call me Sir…" Rick smirked, he'd never heard a female teacher called 'sir' before but his smile quickly faded. Suddenly Gates' face was impossibly close.

"Do not think you can get away with your old parlour tricks here Mr Rogers. We'll show you what's what…" The teacher stepped away and Rick was finally able to breathe again. That was until he heard Gates call out for one of the girls to walk to the crash mats in the centre of the room.

"Beckett I'm sure you can show Mr Rogers how we do things here at Faircroft? Everyone else into pairs…"

Rick hardly heard the sentence, he was mesmerised by the approaching beauty making her way to the middle of the room. Time seemed to slow down as her wavy hair quivered with each step. Rick was pulled out if his reverie by the Hispanic kid's hand pushing him forward. He stumbled into a jelly legged walk as he approached the girl. She smiled absently and extended a hand.

"Kate Beckett. You ever done self-defence before?"

Rick shook her hand and his brain seemed to stop functioning. He aimed to answer "Hi Kate, I'm Rick. No actually I've never done self-defence before" but instead his vocal chords seemed to form a loose "mmrrnnno" sound as he shook his head. Kate released his hand and winked.

"I'll go easy."

The rest of the class were busy pairing up and Rick couldn't move. He heard Gates call start to the 'match' or whatever this was meant to be but before he could respond he was face down on the floor.

Kate straddled him and had his arm pulled up his back. The pain radiating into his shoulder pulled him back to reality and he tried to wiggle out of the grip.

"Owww…"

"Do you give up?" Kate said in his ear. He was momentarily distracted by her lips so close to his face but managed to remain focused and nod stupidly. The grip loosened and Kate stood up, offering a hand to help him stand. Rick took it, noticing how soft it was and ignoring the small flutter in his heart. Kate smiled as Rick rubbed his shoulder. He managed to speak.

"So I'm guessing you've definitely done self-defence before…?"

"Yeah, I'm a police cadet" Kate responded. Rick stopped trying to imagine her in a police uniform and instead nodded and smiled.

"Awesome. I'm Rick, Castle. Well, no I'm Richard Rogers but I've change my name to Castle, like unofficially… but for now you can just call me Richard, Rick I mean… Or Castle… whatever…" He decided to stop talking and cursed inwardly for messing up. He looked at Kate's face expecting to see her looking at him weirdly, but instead her face was still warm and friendly.

"Alright, Mr Richard Rick Rogers Castle. Fancy round two?"

Rick smiled and nodded, then actually heard the question and quickly frowned and shook his head.

"Wait no, I need a safe word I really can't fight…"

He was cut off by Kate getting into a starting stance.

"I'll go easy."

"No you said that last t…"

Rick was unable to finish the sentence before Kate had her arm round his neck. He grasped at her hand to try and pull her off but found himself being dragged to the floor. Her arm loosened momentarily and he took the chance to roll out away from the grip. Rick attempted to stand up but felt a kick to the back of his knees and suddenly she was on top of him again, pushing his face into the mat.

"The safe word is apples! APPLES! Alright! Alright I give up!" He shouted desperately. The hand released and again he was helped to his feet. Kate was laughing and it was the most beautiful laugh Rick had ever heard. He stood watching her for a second until it became awkward and he glanced away.

"Uh, hey Kate, I was wondering- you wanna sit with me at lunch today? I mean I'm new and I have no-one else to sit with…" Kate smiled and nodded, brushing a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

"Uh yeah sure. I'll meet you in the cafeteria."

Rick's heart stumbled and he nodded.

"Great, yeah."

Kate began to walk away as the class rotated partners. Rick kept his eyes on her until the Hispanic guy was stood in front of him, waving his hand in front of his face.

"Hello? Bro you still with me?"

Rick came to his senses and nodded, keeping his eyes on Kate.

"Uh yeah, sorry."

The Hispanic kid followed his gaze.

"Man you really do have a death wish. You know who that girl is?"

Rick looked at the boy blankly. The kid tutted and shook his head.

"She's only the most popular girl in school, top of the class, smoking hot. But dude she's got a boyfriend, and a million other boys lining up after."

Rick frowned.

"A boyfriend?"

The kid nodded.

"Yeah, Josh Davidson. Hangs around with the rough crowd."

Rick frowned more and the kid looked him in the eye.

"Dude if I were you and wanted to keep from being beat up, I'd walk away."

Rick nodded absently and smiled slightly.

"I'm Javier by the way, Javi Esposito."

Rick shook his hand and introduced himself, more fluently than he had managed with Kate.

Javi smiled and took stance to fight.

"Ready bro?"

But the question fell on deaf ears. Richard Castle's mind was focused on the enigma that was Kate Beckett.


End file.
